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Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

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Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#241

Post by majewsky »

SamBam wrote: post #182
scottmf wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then you whitelist individual pages and assets.

...and never see new content? What if the New York Times decided to host all ads themselves? nytimes.com/ad-42.jpg couldn't be distinguished from nytimes.com/todays-front-page-image.jpg Obviously it's more likely for ad ad-provider like Google to do this, but even then, if there's new content from Google (say a blog post) I expect to be able to see it.

I'm pretty sure that /ad-.jpg or something like that is already a blocking pattern. But you're correct: I'm seeing ads on some smaller sites that host the ad banners on their own servers. And you know what? I'm okay with this. I explicitly use uMatrix instead of uBlock since blocking trackers and malware is more important to me than blocking ads. (Getting rid of the more annoying ads is a bonus, though, and I might change my mind if first-party ads become annoying, too.)

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#242

Post by majewsky »

7ewis wrote: post #161
nkkollaw wrote: post #30

With all the ad blocking technologies that are coming up, I wonder if Google is devising something to counteract these efforts. For instance, since browser-based ad blockers work from what I know by blocking known domain names, couldn't Google create random subdomains and serve the code from a different subdomain every day or even every few hours, as well as change the way their JavaScript and HTML looks? Even someth…

I believe Pi Hole have tried to block YouTube Ads but Google randomise the domains they serve those ads from, and also from what I have read, they also serve some fundamental features via those domains too. So if you kill the ads, you kill YouTube.

Youtube ads can be blocked when you whitelist domains. I never see Youtube ads in my uMatrix-equipped browsers with a whitelist of:

  youtube.com apis.google.com script allow
  youtube.com googlevideo.com * allow
  youtube.com gstatic.com * allow
  youtube.com s.ytimg.com script allow
  youtube.com ytimg.com * allow

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#243

Post by majewsky »

stagbeetle wrote: post #103
SamBam wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People greatly overestimate their ability to completely ignore ads, and to make purchasing decisions free from influence. Sure, I believe that I am pretty much completely unaffected ads, but then so does almost everybody else .

Be careful with "I believe that I am pretty much completely unaffected ads, but then so does almost everybody else." This is in the same vein of inductive reasoning as "just snap out of your [insert mental illness/addiction/etc.]." "People," in this context, isn't defined either. If however we were to say that by "people" you mean millennials, then you would be wrong. But if you meant "the population at large" you wo…

The emphasis makes it pretty clear that the statement you're quoting was an ironic one.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#245

Post by drdaeman »

QuadrupleA wrote: post #186

I definitely hate ads like anyone, but it should be acknowledged that ads serve a purpose too, of creating an economy for free content and giving people an avenue to get some income in exchange for their efforts, and possibly be able to devote their full attention to a free project and not have to support themselves with other income. Ads give creators some incentive to create stuff - although the income generally is…

Whatever fancies publishers/distributors - as long as end-users are in charge of what their computer's doing and have the final saying.

If end-user can instruct their computer "do this and don't do that" and freely share those scenarios with other end-users - I guess, everything's fine... or it isn't?

(Of course there's a never-ending-until-the-singularity arms race between ever-complicating advertisement delivery code vs ever-improving advertisement blocking rules... but that's just bound to happen, so personally I'm just looking forward to whatever would speed things up to their logical conclusion, whatever it will be.)

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#246

Post by JoshTriplett »

zeta0134 wrote: post #192
QuadrupleA wrote: post #186

I definitely hate ads like anyone, but it should be acknowledged that ads serve a purpose too, of creating an economy for free content and giving people an avenue to get some income in exchange for their efforts, and possibly be able to devote their full attention to a free project and not have to support themselves with other income. Ads give creators some incentive to create stuff - although the income generally is…

I've maintained for a long time that the ad networks themselves are the problem, not advertising as a whole. There is a place for video advertising (around content that is also video), there is a place for audio advertising (on the radio, around podcasts, on music services), and there is even a place for animated, interactive advertisements, on sites that are expected to dance and move anyway, like online games. The…

> Watch an NFL broadcast and observe the product placement, the logos and sponsors everywhere. It's organic, integrated into the very fiber of the broadcast in a way that couldn't be blocked with even the most sophisticated blocking software.

As an aside, I've seen multiple cases of live video-processing to replace or overlay advertisements on sporting events, such as those plastered on the walls of arenas. (Generally done during broadcasts of those events, as part of deals that separate the market for broadcast and in-person advertising at those events.) So, don't underestimate the ability to block advertisements given sufficient motivation.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#247

Post by majewsky »

ThenAsNow wrote: post #80

I have to admit to doing as little as possible from web browsers on phones, but on the desktop I rely extensively on uMatrix + NoScript (don't know if adding PrivacyBadger on top would buy me anything). However, NoScript for Android seems to be moribund and I don't think there is a uMatrix for Android either. DNS-based ad-blocking seems very 90s (i.e., designed for an era that's less invasive than today), and there's…

I only have uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android, as opposed to uMatrix on desktop Firefox. It's better than nothing wrt tracking blocking, and it kills most of the ads.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#248

Post by amadorbatista »

problems wrote: post #151
JoshMnem wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen a way to root my phones without some risk of turning them into bricks. How would I quickly and safely get root access to a Galaxy Note III without risking the destruction of the device?

The Note 3 is not a Google-made device, it's made by Samsung. Google's own Nexus and Pixel devices allow it in a single button press, I'm unsure of other manufacturers except OnePlus which does the same as Google. As I said in my post, some devices are a lot better than others when it comes to this. Also, bricking doesn't just happen, if you understand what you're doing you'll be fine. That "some risk" isn't random,…

This is simply not true. I've spent 3 years flashing and messing with my phone in many ways.I've hard bricked it only once. When it was updating my phone froze. I didn't do anything stupid. It simply froze and messed with all partitions. It's hard to fuck your phone but it's a possibility.

Re: Pi-hole – A black hole for Internet advertisements

#249

Post by majewsky »

pix64 wrote: post #213

I feel like this is a bit dangerous because it doesn't allow the end user to disable it if it breaks a website which is quite common.

Is it? I'm sitting behind a similar DNS-level adblocker and the only thing that I've noticed broken from time to time is analytics.twitter.com (some external links in the Twitter app route through there, but not enough to annoy me). Or maybe I'm just avoiding all those blocker-blocking sites effectively.
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